Getting It Wrong At Speed And Escaping The Carnage or Expected Carnage Uninjured.

[Tinkicker]

Inspired by the how many crashes thread.  What did you get wrong, what happened and how did you escape injury?

 

Not counting collisions with other cars pulling out on you that could not be avoided.

 

Two spring to mind immediately.  

 

First was around 1981 and bear in mind that at that time I practically lived on off road bikes , most summer evenings and weekends being found on something from my collection of trials and motocross bikes.

Also had a Honda CX500 plastic maggot for going to work on and for going to bike rallies.  CX500 being a most unfairly underated bike at the time.  It was an excellent bike but erroniously marketed at the time by Honda as a sportsbike, which it clearly wasn't.

 

Anyway, one summer evening I left the East Ardsley Motorcycle Club early for some reason and fancied a thrash down a challenging country lane I knew.  If you live near Wakefield, it being the one from east ardsley to west ardsley, past all the rhubarb growing sheds.

So hammering towards west ardsley, probably around 70mph, came to a right hand bend at the bottom of the hill and started tipping it over.  There must have been a cloudburst sometime recently because I was confronted with half a cartload of gravel on the bend that had been washed across the road.

Time slowed down, instinct kicked in and I hauled it back upright.  Of course there was a big ditch on the outside of the bend, but also on the bend was a culverted entryway to a rhubarb shed crossing the ditch so I headed for that.  No option, I could not brake or steer on the gravel.

 

I did not manage it, it was obvious I was not going to make the turn completely and was headed for the ditch.  Just as I ran out of road, I hoiked on the bars and jumped off the top of the culvert into the ditch.  I landed on both wheels simultaneously and grimly hung on with torrents of muddy water flying in all directions.

Bike stopped almost immediately but failed to throw me over the bars, a trembling hand groped for the ignition key and blissful silence ensued.

A couple of minutes of pondering about the meaning of life and it was time to hatch a cunning plot to get the bike out of the ditch. 

About  20 or 30 yards further down was another entryway and a fairly gentle 4ft slope up to the top.  So engine on, in gear and with much sweaty pushing, got to the bottom of the slope, but no way could I get enough traction to get it up the slope.  Then fortune smiled.

 

I heard a car approaching the bend and wondered if I could get a tow.  Sound of skidding on gravel and I expected the imminent arrival of another ton or so of steel visiting the ditch, but no it made it.

It appeared round the bend and it turned out that it was a bile green 13 amp plug, aka reliant robin and I knew it well.

Out jumped four leather jacketed lads from the bike club and we hauled out the bike.

 

After pulling off all the mud and clumps of grass, it turned out that the only damage was a bent up rear brake pedal and the right hand footrest and bracket were missing.

I jumped on it and rode it home.  I straightened the pedal at work and bought another footrest and bracket from a breakers, not even a scratch anywhere else, so total cost of a 70 mph plunge into a ditch was around a fiver.

 

Fantastic bike, if it was marketed as a mini tourer, it would have gotten the respect it deserved.

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Tinkicker

[Stu]

That sound very similar to one of mine

 

About 12 years ago I went of for a blast on my old TL1000s 

 

I can out of a village I know and wound the bike on hitting a very substantial speed! its a straight road then it drops down and into a lovely left hander and up out the other side. 

 

As I flew in to the corner at full tilt really ringing its neck at the point of no return I suddenly saw loads of gravel that had been washed in to the road from the rain the night before. 

 

I have no choice but to carry on there was no time to slow down and no time to try and sit the bike up 

 

I hit the gravel and the full bike just slid to the right kicking and bucking all over the place while it scrambled for grip

 

I slit on to the opposite side of the road where there was an oncoming car in the distance! 

 

He saw what happened and anchored on swerving to his left away from me 

 

The bike regained grip and I just just casually steered the bike across to my side of the road carrying on at the speed I was going and passing the car with him giving me a thumbs up  

 

Stopped at the café up the road to collect my thoughts and bollock myself  

[Steve_M]

I have no tales of derring-do to speak of. However, I will recount events from a day trail riding - something I’ve tried and enjoyed with a company called Trail Ride Wales.

 

We were riding a trail up near Barmouth. I ran out of talent and was launched down the side of the mountain while the bike trundled on down the trail, probably around 20-30mph. Instinctively, I tucked my arms in and my chin to my chest, landing nicely on my back. A quick check revealed a couple of small bruises. Later that day another chap, in front of me, also ran out of talent, at a little over walking pace. He stuck his hand out to break his fall and broke his collar bone and had to be taken to hospital. 
 

I do wonder if my experience of being thrown around at judo when I was younger was the difference. 
 

PS. Yes, the CX500 was underrated, mostly by those who didn’t ride them. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Steve_M

[Tinkicker]

Another tale of derring do.  Honda CBR1100xx Super Blackbird.  Very tractable engine and always made sure I was in third before giving the berries.

Usually short shifted in first and second.  Very smooth engine, I called it my big pussycat.

 

One of my mates was in front on another blackbird and we came to a set of red traffic lights.  Green came and the cars in front set off, got to about forty mph and my mate looked as if he was going to overtake in a bad spot.  I hung back and watched.

He changed his mind and hung back a second or two.  Then he looked like he was going for it, I eased on the throttle to follow and he tucked back in.  I closed the throttle and braked.  By this time we were around 60mph.

He went for half a second later and I immediately followed, winding back the throttle...

 

Bang.  Something hit my visor with right old crack.  What the hell?

Turned out it was the screen and a second later my befuddled mind realised I was overtaking a car at speed, on the rear wheel.

 

Watching my mates overtake antics and having to brake unexpectedly took my attention away from changing gear.  He went for it,  in a fit of pique, I gave mine a fistful.  At 60 - 65mph in first, it would be just coming on cam at 6500rpm, yes, I neglected to shift up, and I unleashed all 165 bhp at once and on front forks still rising back up from dipping during my braking....

 

It came up so fast it did not really register until the screen hit my visor.  I got the throttle shut but by then I was right on the balance point. 

Never in my life has a couple of seconds seemed so long.  I seemed to be on the verge of going over backwards for a full minute or so before the front end crashed back down.

Flipping it at 70mph is not recommended.

I stopped calling it my big pussycat after that.  It had teeth and claws and was just waiting to bite me.

[EX GASMAN]

The scariest near miss I've had was not on a bike but a rented 50cc scooter on holiday, coming back from the beach 2 up with my wife on the back coming round a downhill right hander the road was covered in sand and the from wheel went, not much I could do, I just concentrated on trying to keep it upright and luckily it found some grip just in time. My bike at the time was a 1600 softail and I nearly came a cropper on a moped 

[manxie49]

Would have been about 1990 for me.  Riding a GPZ100RX, came off the A46, down the road from Thurmaston in Leicester,  onto a road called Broome Lane, little narrow B road which heads towards Ratcliffe.  Nice sunny day, roads were good, came up to quite a tight little right hander just before East Goscote, went round it loads of times with no issues.   On this occasion,  right on the apex the road was wet, back end of the bike twitched as I hit it and stood up,  high sided me into the ditch.  I remember laying there for what seemed like forever wondering what I'd broke.  In reality all I got were bruises and a seriously fractured ego for going too fast and running out of talent. I was bloody sore for a few days afterwards though.  

 

We live and learn, regardless of how many times I ride down country lanes now I never take anything for granted and always expect the unexpected.  I've had quite a few instances where that ethos has saved me from serious accidents and injury due to other nobs on the road.

Edited February 10, 2023 by manxie49

[fullscreenaging]

Last year I was travelling along one of my favourite roads, the B1225 High Street. 
I normally do it from Caistor to Horncastle but this day it was the other way. Anyway, I had spotted a 4x4 Nivara type vehicle in the distance approach a junction to my right but it didn’t get to the junction. It stopped about 20 feet short and stayed there. It then was obscured by some hedges for a while and I looked to my right as I passed the junction and still no movement. I then looked in my mirror but still no movement. I don’t know how long I had been transfixed in my mirror but it must have been longer than I thought. 
I looked back to the road just at the right moment really because if it had been a millisecond later I probably would not have had the same outcome. 
As I looked back at the road it was bending to the right and I only had about a foot of road left. I would say it was around a 25 degree bend and I didn’t have a lot of time left as I was about 70mph. 
Time slowed down only for a second and my first thought was ‘f**k, this is going to hurt’ My second thought was ‘It looks like the grass verge is very bumpy, this is going to hurt’

I had initially resigned myself to coming to a bad end, somehow my thought process changed and I did turn into the bend as I left the tarmac. I just kept my focus on the middle of the road and I eventually got back to tarmac. The bike squirmed and bucked a bit but I managed to keep on the dry muddy bit before I got to all the wild flowers and weeds where I knew it would be bumpy as shit. 
Just a weird experience where I think my fight or flight instincts kicked in. Flight initially came to the front but fight overruled. I think if I didn’t have the years of experience I have it would have been a different ending. 
Once it had happened I just forgot about it and cracked on. No point dwelling on it and obviously I knew what had caused it.